Indy Power Rankings for the Week of October 21st, 2013
For the Week of October 21st, 2013:
1. Adam Cole-Another close week but Cole has been #1 for 3 of 4 weeks now. Cole has not lost since early September and with his status as both ROH and PWG World Champion. This week he retained the PWG World Title in a battle with his former partner and former #1 in the Indy Power Rankings, Kyle O’Reilly. Can anyone dethrone Cole from the #1 spot?
2. Uhaa Nation-Undefeated weekend for “The One Man Nation” as he went 2-0 at Dragon Gate with a straight up tag team win as well as a 6 man tag team victory. Although Uhaa just barely missed out on #1 this week, he continues to dominate Japan.
3. Matt Taven-In a tight race, Taven barely drops one spot despite the fact that he and Rhett Titus defeated Amazing Red & Danny Demanto for the ICW Tag Team Titles on 10/19. A Boston Red Sox victory (which he attended) on 10/20 brought him some joy, but at the end of the day, he was unable to move up, possibly due to the night off.
4. Johnny Gargano-The Open the Freedom Gate Champion for DGUSA makes his return to the Indy Power Rankings. It’s a place he’s quite familiar with as he’s a 5 time former #1. This week he knocked off Roderick Strong at PWG, Paul London at PRIME Wrestling, and then capped off the weekend by winning back the PRIME title from Krimson to go 3-0 on the weekend.
5. Shane Hollister-The AAW Heavyweight Champion returns after a week out due to a loss at CZW. This week he returned to form with a successful title defense in a rematch vs. Arik Cannon. He followed that up with a victory over J.J. Garrett at SCW to get ranked once again. This is tied for his highest ranking yet. Can he build upon this and move closer to #1?
6. The Global Green Gangsters (Kellie Skater & Tomoka Nakagawa)- If you ever need an example of exactly what dominance is…look no further than “3G” this weekend. An amazing 4-0 weekend rockets them up the Indy Power Rankings. Wins over Kana & LuFisto, Made In Sin (Allysin Kay & Taylor Made), Nevaeh & Sassy Stephie, and Cherry Bomb & Kimber Lee for the SHIMMER Tag Team Champions get them their first ever ranking.
7. Cheerleader Melissa-What a weekend for the SHIMMER Champion. First she was ranked #1 in the PWI 50, then she went 3-0 to gain her first ranking in the Indy Power Rankings. Unfortunately for her, she was busted open in the process. She scored victories over Hiroyo Matsumoto, Leva Bates, and LuFisto to sweep the weekend at SHIMMER.
8. Madison Eagles-Big SHIMMER weekend for Madison Eagles as she defeated 3 women (technically 4) and went to a draw with another. She defeated Mia Yim, went to a Time Limit Draw with Nicole Matthews, defeated Jessicka Havok (last week’s #10), and finally defeated Hikaru Shida/Kana in a 3 Way. Fantastic weekend for the coffee addict!
9. Ethan Page-“All Ego” returns to the Indy Power Rankings after a dominant weekend in the U.S. and Canada. On October 18th, he and Monster Mafia teammate-Josh Alexander, advanced in the Allegiance Tag Team Tournament at AAW with a win over the current AAW Tag Team Champions-Kung Fu Manchu (Louis Lyndon & Marion Fontaine). He continued his dominance with wins at Fringe Wrestling and Alpha-1 (to retain the Alpha Male title vs. Johnny Wave) to wrap up the weekend.
10. The Hooligans-A tag team victory over Jake Parnell & Xander Legend in Dyersberg, TN for AAW (not the one in the Chicago area) was just what the doctor ordered for this brutal tag team. They’ll fight, brawl, scratch, and claw…but they’ll also win. This week they hit #10 by doing things THEIR way.
Major Names Ineligible this week due to inactivity:
Isys Ephex, reDRagon (as a team), Jay Briscoe, Team CK
Just missing out/Others receiving votes:
Benjamin Kimera
JT Dunn
Jessicka Havok
The Young Bucks
Drake Younger
Chase Owens & Jason Kincaid
The Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & DH Smith)
Rob Conway
Kevin Steen
Justin Credible
Jimmy Jacobs & Silas Young
Kansas City Killers (Mark Sterling & Jeremy Wyatt)
Jay Lethal
Cherry Bomb & Kimber Lee
Christina Von Erie
Matt Cage
Caleb Konley
Arik Royal
Since January of 2013, we have been ranking the very best independent wrestlers on a weekly basis. The concept spawned from former ESPN.com writer, Jon Robinson, who ranked the best WWE wrestlers from 1 to 10 on ESPN.com every week. ESPN.com still does the NFL Power Rankings, while Jon Robinson is no longer there, but has given us the blessing to carry on with our project. In fact, he was one of our very first followers. Our goal is to not only to educate everyone on who some of the best independent wrestlers are in the bigger promotions, but to also expose some of the less heralded wrestlers in smaller promotions.
This is a KAYFABE list, meaning it is not centered around our opinion of who the best worker is on a weekly basis, but rather, more sports-oriented in the thought process of wins being the most important factor in getting ranked. Many various independent wrestling writers spend their time debating who the “best in the world” is while we simply seek to prove it via wins and losses.
In order to be ranked and to avoid personal biases, we have a group of voters from around the country who have 3 main criteria for voting (in a similar manner to ESPN.com’s NFL Power Rankings):
1. Win-loss record for the week & overall
2. Strength of opponents for the week
3. Overall public perception of the wrestler in question (i.e. Davey Richards has a stronger following than a regional independent wrestler who most people have never heard of)
Only wrestlers who did not wrestle for the WWE or TNA during the voting period are qualified. This means that OVW wrestlers who are contracted to TNA are eligible, providing that they did not wrestle for TNA during the voting period. NXT wrestlers are not eligible for this list. Any wrestler who does NOT wrestle during the week are not eligible for that week’s list. This is a list of wrestlers who primarily compete in the U.S. or they can qualify by going on an extended tour of the U.S. (i.e. if Jushin ‘Thunder Liger goes 3-0 on American soil).
With all that being said, please sit back and enjoy this week’s rankings and if you have any questions/comments, please feel free to tweet us @IndyPowerRankin, visit our Facebook page at Facebook.com/IndyPowerRankings, or email us at IndyPowerRankings@Gmail.com. Thanks!